How the Occupational Judgment Assessment works
Each scenario opens with a written set-up naming the people involved, a line in italics telling you whose position to answer from, and a computer-animated video about a minute long. Closed captions are available, and no speakers or webcam are needed.
Below the video are four courses of action. You select one as MOST effective and one as LEAST effective, then record your answer. You have five minutes per scenario, and the video plays inside those five minutes.
OPM scores it as the Decision Making competency. In OPM’s Competency Lookup Tool it is in every GS-14 and GS-15 standard battery and nearly every one at GS-12 and GS-13, and in fewer at lower grades.
How to choose the most and least effective actions
Work through the four options in this order:
- Name the problem in one line: what needs to happen for the work to get done properly?
- Find the Least first. It is usually the option that ignores the problem, hides it, breaks a rule or pushes it onto someone else without trying.
- For the Most, prefer the option that deals with the problem at your own level, uses the resources available, and keeps the right people informed.
- Escalating to a supervisor is good when the problem is beyond you, and weaker when you could reasonably solve it yourself.
- Use only what the scene tells you. OPM’s advice is not to assume extra information.
Worked example
Set-up: Tomás, a claims technician, notices that his colleague Ana has entered the wrong date on several case files. The files are due to go to another office at 3 pm, and Ana is in a meeting until 4 pm. If you were in Tomás’s position, what would be the most and least effective course of action?
A. Send the files as they are, since they are Ana’s work. B. Correct the dates himself without telling anyone. C. Tell the supervisor about the errors, ask whether to hold the files or correct them, and let Ana know when she is back. D. Email Ana and wait for her reply before doing anything.
Most effective: C. It stops the errors leaving the office, involves the person who can authorise a fix, and keeps Ana informed. Least effective: A, which knowingly sends out wrong records. B fixes the symptom but leaves no record and gives Ana no chance to learn; D will probably miss the 3 pm deadline.
Tips for the real Occupational Judgment Assessment
- Read the set-up and the perspective line before you play the video. Answer as that person, not as yourself in your own job.
- Turn on captions if you are somewhere noisy, or if you take in text faster than speech.
- Allow for the video in your timing. With about a minute of video, you have roughly four minutes for the two picks.
- Commit to both picks. The Most and the Least are separate choices.
- Check the radio buttons once more before you record the answer. You cannot go back to a scenario.
- Try OPM’s free practice version on OPM’s help centre to see the video player and controls.
Practise Occupational Judgment on CogniPrep
Our version has 10 federal workplace scenarios with a five-minute clock each, covering both picks. We have no video, so each scene is a written transcript of what the characters say; tone of voice and facial expressions are not part of it. You pick Most effective, then Least effective, and each pick earns one mark against our key. OPM publishes no scoring rule, so the marking is ours.